- 19 May 2018 15:16
#14916196
With the trans-Atlantic alliance in deep coma, Europeans discover a new friend in the East. While the number of issues opposing Europe and the US increases by the day (Climate change, Iran deal, Jerusalem, punitive import taxes, WTO, NordStream 2, etc.), Europe needs Russia more than ever - not just for gas supplies, but also for a solution in Syria, Ukraine, and other areas. Merkel notably asked Putin to use his influence with Assad not to implement new property laws effectively disowning anybody not filing claims to his/her property in Syria, which would disown the millions of Syrian refugees abroad.
Moreover, with the new Italian government vehemently opposed to the sanctions against Russia and the Brits departing, the Russian sanctions are unlikely to last another 6 months.
If Trump didn't manage to tie closer ties with Russia, he is certainly succeeding in pushing Europe that way.
Wary EU powers find common ground with Kremlin - Putin reaches out to Merkel and Macron in pursuit of ‘strategic interest’
Moreover, with the new Italian government vehemently opposed to the sanctions against Russia and the Brits departing, the Russian sanctions are unlikely to last another 6 months.
If Trump didn't manage to tie closer ties with Russia, he is certainly succeeding in pushing Europe that way.
Wary EU powers find common ground with Kremlin - Putin reaches out to Merkel and Macron in pursuit of ‘strategic interest’
For Vladimir Putin it is a moment to savour: two of Europe’s most powerful politicians beating a path to his door.
On Friday Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, met the Russian president in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to make clear that Germany had a “strategic interest” in maintaining good relations with Moscow.
Next week France’s President Emmanuel Macron will be in St Petersburg, a guest at Russia’s most important annual economic forum.
“Even in the most difficult times, we never broke off contact with each other,” Mr Putin said after his meeting with Ms Merkel, whom he earlier presented with a bouquet of roses.
“Life goes on, develops, new opportunities arise.”
Russia’s diplomatic standing has in recent months been at rock bottom. But the twin visits show that it could be rising from the depths, dragged upwards by Donald Trump’s decision to quit the international nuclear agreement with Iran and impose new sanctions on Tehran.
At odds over Syria, Ukraine and Moscow’s meddling in the US election, Germany and Russia now find themselves in the unusual position of having a number of shared interests. They both want to keep the Iran deal alive, and are both resisting US pressure over Nord Stream 2, the planned gas pipeline between Russia and Europe.
Asked after Friday’s meeting if a thaw was under way between Berlin and Moscow, Ms Merkel said: “I consider it absolutely important for us to talk to each other.”
French officials said Mr Macron, during his visit to Russia next week, would also seek to underscore the new convergence with Moscow. “We have a collective interest in staying in the [Iran] deal,” an Elysee aide said.
“One common concern that brings us together is a willingness to avoid escalation in the region,” another aide noted.
Mr Putin is clearly relishing the opportunity to show he is a more dependable partner than Mr Trump, who has shown disregard for traditional alliances. “Putin feels himself to be the temporary winner in this new situation,” said Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee. “He can’t quite believe his luck.”
A focus of Friday’s meeting in Sochi was the future of Nord Stream 2, which is strongly opposed by the Trump administration. It believes the pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, will deprive Kiev of critical transit fees and make Europe more dependent on Russian energy exports. Mr Trump hit out at Germany this week for “buying massive amounts of gas from Russia”.
Ms Merkel Ms Merkel had sought assurances from Mr Putin that Russia would continue to send gas through the Ukrainian pipeline system even after Nord Stream 2 comes on line, thus addressing some of the US concerns over the project. Mr Putin told reporters after the meeting that Russia was ready to do so — providing such shipments “make economic sense”.
France is also hoping that Mr Macron’s trip to Russia next week will herald a thaw in the relationship. The president will meet Mr Putin for three hours in St Petersburg next Thursday and the following day take part in a panel at the city’s annual International Economic Forum. He would be keen to “show we hold firm positions [on contentious isues such as Syria] but also seek to deepen the relationship everywhere we can,” a senior diplomat said.
Yet signs of a rapprochement between Russia on the one hand and France and Germany on the other pale into insignificance when set against their remaining disagreements. Paris and Berlin have repeatedly condemned Russia’s support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria and its military interference in eastern Ukraine. They also joined the UK in expelling Russian diplomats in March over the nerve agent poisoning of former Soviet agent Sergei Skripal.
Anton Khlopkov, an analyst at the Centre for Energy and Security Studies, said he was sceptical that Europe and Russia would be able to work together to salvage the Iran deal, known as the JCPOA.
“The Europeans are too focused on the idea that Russia wants to undermine their relationship with the US, and less focused on saving the JCPOA,” he said.
Russian politicians agree. Grigory Yavlinsky, a veteran liberal politician, said any talk of a thaw in relations between Europe and Russia was “wishful thinking”.
Mr Yavlinsky, who was one of the token challenger candidates who ran against Mr Putin in the March presidential election, said the “first root cause” of the chill between Moscow and western capitals was Russia’s policy in Ukraine.
Relations would only improve if Russia agreed to discuss the status of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, pull out of eastern Ukraine and abandon his attempts to compromise Ukraine’s sovereignty. “But I don’t see any signs [of that],” he said.
Indeed Mr Putin’s most high-profile public appearance in weeks suggested that he has no intention of backing down. On Thursday, he opened a bridge linking Crimea with mainland Russia, a pet project built by a company controlled by his billionaire friend Arkady Rotenberg.
Although Mr Putin mainly touted the economic benefits the bridge would bring, underlining the Kremlin’s focus on improving people’s livelihoods, his appearance was condemned by several western governments.
Back in Sochi, Ms Merkel rejected the suggestion that more cordial relations with Mr Putin were a sign that she was turning away from the US.
“We have a strong transatlantic friendship,” she said. Through its history there had been disputes and differences of opinion. “But this does not call into question the intensity of that transatlantic relationship,” she said.
It rather seems like filing divorce. The Iran deal is a multilateral agreement unanimously approved of by the UNSC, by the way, and now the US government demands Europe to pull out as well, or else they will be sanctioned. Then again, is this not something welcomed by Trump supporters? Although they believe it's America First, it's Family First actually, and Trump has a big family for sure.
- By paeng
- By Pants-of-dog
- By Godstud